Monday, November 19, 2012

I’ve been wondering about the Hostess bankruptcy in light of
the fact that the blame is being placed squarely on unions for its fiscal
problems. Unions, it seems, are under fire from every side. Unions brought us
things like the weekend, the 40 hour work week, workman’s compensation, health
insurance, and child labor laws. Things that we take for granted these days.

That and so much more.

But for some reason, unions are bad and corporations are
good.

And Hostess, maker of such fine American products as Twinkies,
Sno-balls, and an endless line of food products made of air and corn syrup has
announced that it cannot proceed with business with the bad old unions driving
them to bankruptcy court.

Never mind the fact that Americans equate Hostess products
with Junk Food to such an extent that the former San Francisco County
Commissioner who murdered Harvey Milk and George Moscone used what has been
called the “Twinkie Defense” as an excuse for his crimes.

Hostess products, even in this age of American obesity, are such
low sellers that it is a good thing that they are so heavily laced with food
preservatives so their shelf life compares to that of a desert tortoise.

So I really doubted that their union problems were the sole
reason for their financial troubles. And now I see that the other shoe has
dropped. Hostess is declaring bankruptcy a little prematurely, according to afederal bankruptcy judge, as they have not yet gone into mediation with the
unions.

It seems that they are just a little anxious just to get the
whole thing over.

And now it seems that the US Trustee has determined that Hostess,
in its bankruptcy settlement, is being a little too generous to its upper management
and insiders.

In short, the company appears to be liquidating to line the
pockets of its upper management under the smoke and mirrors of being abused by
cruel and calculating unions.

But don’t worry, I won’t call for a boycott of Hostess products.
No one I know buys the stuff anyway.